The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-03-24

to begin your attempt to live Christian life by
saying in sincerity, sGod, show me the way; give
me thy help?" Are you willing? Not to say your
prayers; there are a great many prayers said; a
great many too few prayers that felt and not
true. Is there sincerity in your would to God
that you have spiritual reiilling aud the sustain
ing power of the whole spirit, that you have the
certainty that he working in me to will and
to do his good pleasure. Are you ready to begin
your Christian life then by opening the word Of
God and reading, not chapter nor verse
two every day, but to make it the line of your
counsel? When any great combination, scheme,
is being formed in New York-any syndicate
there is always lawyer, and they will never take
a single step until they consult him, and he is
about all the while; he is the man of their coun-
sci; it's complicated thing, and great deal de
pends upon it, and they cannot afford to go wrong
Are you willing to take the New Testament as the
line of your counsel? See what it says abocslusts
about appettes, what it says about crime and envy
and jealousy, and all i'll will and evil speaking,
and all selfshness in its grasping moods Are
you willing to look through the New Tes-
lament TO see what the law of the Lord is?
Not by discussion God viii take care of his own
defense and doesn't thank you for any help; nor
has be any occasion to thank anybody. Are you
willing to take the Bible just shipmaster
takes the chart? When he leaves the last shore
light and takes his direction he never says: Read
me direction or two of the sailing directions,
and then again. They have no relation at all to
his course, to his actual sailing; but he is not go
ing to read so many parts of his chart and of his
sailing directions. Why, no; he lays out his voy-
age from the beginning and every day he takes
observations, and then he checks down on the
chart just where he is. At noon tomorrow he
takes another observation; not because there is
any need of reading his chart, in reading any
book on navigation; not because be is studying
astronomy for the sake of anything that is in
astronomy He has got definite purpose in life
after which he sells lis astronomy, and after
which he sells his books, or those which lay his
course. Are you willing to begin Christian
course and voyage by going to the word of God
to ascertain exactly what is expected of you
both what you are to reject and what you are to
adopt? That is sensible, that is right resolving,
according to practical basis and resolution Or,
on the other hand are you, while you are weigh
ing, that is, in yourself, are you SAYING to
yourself: my other people of God got on the
best way. There is my father and mother. If
there were ever any Christians they were such.
l believe they were real Christians Now a
mans mother is infinitely more to him than the
Virgin Mary is to any devout Catholic.
You come into the church because you find
sympathy there and kindly help there. Are you
willing to take advantage Of all these kindly
helps so that you may be able to keep your pur-
pose and your will? Are you willing to begin it
now? YOU don't need any more knowledge You
have been brought up in Christian knowledge
from the very cradle; you have no bad associa-
tions; you have necessarily none by the average,
but what Christian life was and Christian duty is
there--there is no man here that needs to have
additional instruction; he knows that he is bound
to live obediently to God and in love with Jesus
! Christ. But can man come into state of emo
| ton? Can man by simply saying will, feelf
| No. no; but by saying will feel he can take the
! steps to feel. man shivers and says, "Chills
and fever are not agreeable; am determined to
| get over them" Well, you cannot get over them
! by determining it, but if you will take quinine
/ enough you can. Now let your purpose he not
| simply this, Il am resolved to be Christian ~
! but Il am resolved so unostentatiously l am
! going to feel myself for all the help can and all
| the Christian institutions that are necessary for
| my veal" Now, that is practical, ano hat is
common sense as well as moral sense Or are
| you going to say, well, will see about it,"
| No, you won't; you know it. : that thing
| We have in our times, when a 10th debtor he has
given a note not for the sake of paying q debt
but for the sake of getting rid of paying it they
put it off for four months, and then they give an
| other note. 1t is the greenback business in
which they pay one note by giving another.
| There are mutitudes Of people that form reso,
luton for the sake of not fulfilling duty and a
man says, well, have made up my mind am
| going to be Christian as soon as get ready ''
When are you going to get ready? 1t has
| clouded your conscience and clouded your reason
now by promising to do that, by and by, when
the convenient time comes; and the devil viii see
to it that it never comes 1t is a resolution that
simply means the feeling of having done your
duty. And think the most scandalous mean.
nesses and dishonorableness that can very well
be imagined, when the parties concerned are re-
garded, is that resolution that people form to be
| Christian, when they have wasted themselves
in the service of selfishness, and when they have
come into old age and lie on their death bed
|
mer time, should gather peck of peas and
shell out the peas. and send the pods over to my
neighbor as present, That is what men mean
to do with God; they mean to live in youth after
their passions; they mean to live In middle age
after their ambition; they mean to live in old
age after ease and before they die they hope to
whip on the right side and get into heaven Wher
you come to examine such conduct in relation tc
men, there Is not savage that would not fee
that was infamous-to repay protection, divine
benediction, the ministration of God through
all the channels of nature and the kindness of Goo
through Jesus Christ for the ministration of the
gospel; and the man deliberately says, we will
seek all the money out of these things and all the
rest that is In life, and when we are no longer o
use to ourselves we are going-we will repent Sc
as to get into heaven. Two Dutch elders had beer
warm friends and yet one day they fell out witt
each other and the fire grew fercer until they
came positively to hate each other, and one Sun
day morning the dominic going behind one o.
the elders heard him mutter to himself, ''var
Alstyne is hypocrte; he will go to hell he vii
go to hell.'' The old dominic spoke up to him ant
said: "Oh, oh, my brother, he won't go to hell
Eyes he will go to hell" "Well but nv deal
fellow, he may repent 'No-well, he is JUS
mean enough to do it," But this is-it is can
ddly-the condition in which some of you are
You mean to live hatefully, iisobediently, dis
honorably, and yet in the last estate you mean tC
whip up and get into heaven-you are lust mear
enough to do it,
Now, on the other hand, blessed be God, he L
long suffering, and he is patient, and as we woulc
pay debt, by ehstalments, little by little, show
ing all the time thai we endeavor TO do it, he re
spects your endeavor to live, to repent and to iv,
a Christian life, by installments
If you make up your mind honestly to do it, b,
will bear with your Incompetence and your ig
norance and your endearments; he viii bear pa
tiently with you, and help you from day to day
and from month to month, and from year to year
growing brighter and brighter unto the perfec
day" Is there any man here that can say in re
gard to the past, am resolved that / Will Gu
loose from everything that has been detrimen
to me, dishonorable to God? Is there any MAJ
that will say in regard to the future 81 am re
solved what to do? am resolved to take highe
life, the nobler ideal; I am determined by thu
help of God, that will live in such way that
should live" And if there is don't wait unit
) tomorrow morning; readjust your life tonight
. go home and tell God of it; go home and tel
your wife Of it. That is the very thing yol
don't dare to do because when a man has ono
committed himself he is ashamed to go back; ant
if you are ashamed to tell anybody Il have mad
up my mind to live like Christian man. it i
because you have not made up your mind. Whel
man has determined that he will live Christian
; life he will be willing to show to all that ar
around about him, Il am going to try l hav
made up my mind to try If you have min,
you will enter upon your journey. 1.-THE tim
is past in which I have served the will of tn
! flesh, and now, tonight, have determined that
will begin, with the help of God to live Christian
life" Are there any Of you that are willing Il
make that resolve? God help you. For a littl
while it will be troublesome thing, for littl
; while, but then easier and easier with remu
! neration and exhilaration and joy and final vic
tGry.''
They Won the Money.
: DR.. Leeds, of Lincoln, Ills, offered SIS T.
the Ladies' Missionary society If twenty n